The short version is that Obama took a kind of “allright you say the surge is working, fine, so let’s get out” James Fallows-esque gambit. Very interesting move on the Senator’s part. What Obama managed to do was make clear that the strategy as currently laid out is either A)un-winnable & unrealistic and/or B)already in place. Either way why continue on the current course?

Obama was good but not quite as cagey as Senator Biden in getting Ambd. Crocker to admit uncomfortable truths. And in the spirit of Democratic ecumenism, Sen. Clinton shrewdly hit back on the notion of non-Congress approved signing of a permanent bases contract with the Iraqi Government.

—

PS It doesn’t help to lessen this Obama is the Messiah meme if the picture they provide has him back lit with a halo.

Update I: Petraeus says he is not interested. For now he certainly isn’t and he could very well become the next NATO Commander. But he is known to be highly ambitious. Question is in which direction (Joint Chiefs?). If he wants to continue to push for Counter-Insurgency in the Army (over big Air Force and Naval style conventional war) maybe staying within the system is better. Don’t know. I’ll be interested to see where he goes post-Iraq.

Also liked the Klein article and happy to see Obama use his head to show that perceive inexperience on the foreign policy front doesn’t mean one can’t come to well thought out and important conclusions/insights.

Also, I’m almost at the point where I’m going to get my Biden pom-poms back out re: VP.

PS – you’re halo comment made me laugh out loud.

Cheers.

On April 10, 2008 at 6:23 pm thepoliticsofscrabble said:

Argh, typos irk me:

perceive = perceived

you’re = your

On April 11, 2008 at 8:53 am cjsmith said:

S,

I’ve tended to be more a Richardson Veep guy or maybe a Webb. I thought Biden might want to stay in his Chairmanship, but maybe not. Maybe Sec State? Maybe VP what do I know? Obama could have some problems in the Northeast.

The problem is he hasn’t thought about this at all and he better not pull a Gore or Kerry and pick a loser.